Editor’s special: our hand-selected guide of the top creative marketing ideas for holidays

In the updated context of the year 2020, it is wise to look at the consumers as people. Adapting to the new digital reality they can be easily lost in the number of marketing activities brands are preparing for them this holiday season.

As the passionate ambassador of user-generated content, Insense is suggesting you move your focus to this format of engaging your future consumer in the next few months. Remember that people love to express themselves and become part of something bigger. UGC helps your creative speak and look more human and closer to the consumer and, as a result, shows more appealing engagement and sales ratings.

Here are our best marketing ideas on how to benefit from the UGC strategy during the upcoming holiday season.

Holiday Gift Guide

During pandemic times, holiday shopping jumps from physical stores with its consultants and advisors to the vast space of digital. According to Facebook research, Gen X and Boomers dominate mobile and e-commerce growth. Keep in mind that shopping online can be a disturbing experience for these new-to-digital explorers and help them connect faster with a little navigation.

Keep a role of a good old sales consultant and provide step-by-step video tutorials on how to stroll through the virtual shelves, save for later, make safe online payments and find info on shipping and return policies. It is recommended by Facebook to launch your FAQs right after Black Friday and pair it with gift wrapping how-tos and personal shopping guides.

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DIY connected to your product

In the new self-isolating times, people are rethinking their homes: from fixing up houses to learning new cooking skills and pulling full Marie Kondo for the wardrobes. During the holidays, consumers will keep using these new skills to cook a truly home-made meal or make a DIY gift for someone special. 

What can brands do? Create a series of how-to videos, immerse your product into it, and highlight your brand in a holiday rush. Help people level up their celebrations with a pinch of fun: land them a tutorial on how to wrap 50 bottles of your nail polish or teach them how to 'cook' an edible gift card using your flour. Facebook also recommends thinking bots or Stories that give advice, Live quizzes, Instagram-ready recipes, and holiday playlists. 

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Influencer Content, Retouched

Based on several years of experience Insense proves that in paid ads, user-generated content shows higher performance rather than classic high-end creative carefully made by a brand. At the same time, it usually adds to the campaign performance if you tune the influencer's creative anyway.

Insert brand visual identity in the first 5 seconds of the UGC video — add logo, slogan, use branded font, and colors. It wouldn't be extra to add some color corrections according to your brand guide before releasing the creative into the paid rotation. This helps to stand out in a saturated digital space during the intense holiday season.

According to a Facebook study, visual identity in paid ads drives impact: 71% of performance ads examined in the survey had higher ROAS, 67% had a higher optimized conversion, and ad recall.

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Customize Messages

Using one creative template for different neighborhoods can be locally-relevant at scale. Get a creative template once and use it differently on different groups and locations. Depending on which segment of your audience or which geographical location you aim to cover, do customize your message.

With Insense, you could do it in two ways. One way is to pick a selection of micro-influencers from the particular states (and even cities) and customize your message for each region. Another is to mention this feature in the brief for a single creator and they would produce a few different creatives with given messages.

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Unboxing, Transformed

Unboxing videos can be a weak tactic especially during the holiday season but not if you do it differently this time. To stand out from every other unboxing video, make yours in an unusual format or make your product work on set instead of just being pulled once and forgotten.

Here are a few mechanics we would love to share with you which would help you to lighten up traditional marketing activities during the holiday season and get more out of your marketing effort.

Interactive Unboxing

This mechanics helps to generate and then promote a few different creatives united by one cause at once, and quickly expand your reach to the new audiences.

Select a group of influencers who are close to each other and would be happy to organize a creative unboxing cause for one another. Help them run the circle of celebration together.

It works like a waterfall. The first influencer receives a branded gift and a postcard which says the gift is from another influencer. After a live session of unboxing, the happy influencer's aim is to spread the celebration further. Your brand is in charge of the gift, the influencer is in charge of coming up with the creative way of handing it over to the next lucky — and make sure the creative is well-filmed and aired or posted. The happy circle stops when the final gift arrives at the final influencer from your list and the final unboxing happens.

Why it worth it: 

• you engage a few influencers at once and instantly expand your reach to the new audiences, 
• you get a few different creatives united by one cause and ready to be promoted, which helps it to initiate a trend and get viral.

Best works for: Fashion Goods, Beauty Products, E-commerce Industry.

Native Integrated

Nothing can show the benefits and features of your product better than a how-to video. Don't make your product just sit in a box, give it a job: ask an influencer to come up with a scenario that would be both entertaining and useful, helping to uncover the full potential of your product.

Producing kitchenware? Great, film a whole Christmas dinner in the making (and don't forget to instruct influencer on the safety tips).

Why it worth it: not only can you get a how-to video for further paid rotation but also a hook to run a contest among your consumers encouraging them to film their version of whatever you were filming with an influencer.

Best works for: Food, Home Decor.

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Contest For All

This technique helps to engage not only consumers of your product but anyone from the influencer's audience. Here is how it works. An influencer runs a live stream related to the holiday season. This live stream aims to film the unboxing of your product and announce a contest that would require the influencer's followers to share their stories about most wild/cute/fun/unusual/etc. gifts they ever got for Christmas. 

Why it worth it: the product in this case perfectly fits the holiday season wave of giveaways plus you get you branded hashtag shared across the platform which increases your brand online presence and helps to spread the word beyond your influencer's crowd.

Best works for: Beauty Products, Food, Fashion Goods, Home Decor.

Everyday VS. Celebration

Make the most out of your collaboration with an influencer: create 'then' and 'now' videos featuring your product in an influencer's hands. Showcase the performance of your product for everyday tasks and under the pressure of еру intense holiday season.

Show your future consumers that your best pan is suitable for both melting a special sauce for Christmas turkey for a couple of hours — and for cooking everyday scramble for the whole family. Inspire your audience to get used to wearing two versions of sparkling makeup, for everyday glow and the party.

Best works for: Beauty Products, Fashion Goods, Food.

Gifts For All Your Lovers

Here is a technique that is regularly forgotten by advertisers yet this one has a high engagement rate. Collect your products in groups based on a specific feature of the target audience and put it into a carousel. Let there be gifts for mothers, fathers, lovers, besties, and everybody else! You can’t mismatch if you care about people based on their social roles.

Best works for: Beauty Products, Fashion Good.

Experiment

If not trying new marketing approaches during the most saturated time of the year then when? Check out the new instant shopping format and promote your best-sellers in a style. Hire an influencer or a talent from your team and air a series of live episodes to drive real-time interactions and increase the hype around your product.

Facebook recommends using the Drops sticker on Instagram shopping to increase momentum and concentrate people's attention on your brand immediately.

Try Insense and find your unique creator among selected influencers to create original and engaging content for your audience. Reach out to more than 35000+ Instagram trusted influencers and find a partnership that would boost your marketing strategy this holiday season. Start an efficient campaign, expand your brand to the new audiences, establish your leadership in a segment, and drive online sales in the upcoming months.